The present invention relates to an arrangement for mounting dividing or separating elements in a filtering water separator.
Arrangements of the above-mentioned general type are known in the art. A known arrangement has a mounting plate provided with cylindrical openings, a receiving flange member located at one end of each dividing or separating element and received in the respective opening as well as sealed against the mounting plate, and a central spindle member for tensioning both ends of each dividing or separating element and extending through the respective opening of the mounting plate and connected with a tensioning member which axially abuts against the mounting plate.
Such a filtering water separator is utilized, for example, for filtering out impurities in form of solid particles from a fuel and separating water contained therein. These filtering water separators must satisfy in practice very high requirements with respect to the dividing and separating output with simultaneous high throughput.
In the known arrangements several hollow cylindrical dividing elements and separating elements are arranged in a housing and mounted laterally on the mounting plate so as to subdivide the housing into an inlet chamber for a liquid to be cleaned, particularly for fuel to be cleaned, and a main chamber. The liquid flows through the perforated lateral receiving flange member of the dividing and separating elements and through the opening in the mounting plate. A seal arranged between the receiving flange member and the mounting plate prevents a leakage of not cleaned liquid. At the same time, the receiving flange member serves for mounting the dividing or separating elements on the mounting plate.
In the known filtering water separator, the dividing and separating elements are supported by an inner perforated supporting pipe. The dividing or separating element is screwed at its end facing toward the mounting plate to the receiving flange member which in turn is screwed to the mounting plate. When the filtering water separator is designed in accordance with the above-mentioned construction, the thread of the receiving flange member must be manufactured with higher accuracy, and the force transfer via the thread in the dividing or separating element encounters some difficulties.
In the known arrangements, the dividing or separating element is tensioned by a threaded central spindle between the receiving flange member and a flange member at the other end. The mounting plate is tensioned between the tightening member connected with the central spindle and the receiving flange member. In such a construction, highly sealed abutment of the receiving flange member against the mounting plate with interposition of a seal is guaranteed. At the same time the tensioning of the dividing or separating element with the aid of the central spindle provides for mounting of the dividing or separating element which, up to certain length of the elements, is sufficient to take up all operational loads.
The known filtering water separators must operate with ever-increasing throughputs in conditions of limited space which leads to development of the dividing or separating elements with increasing structural length. In this situation the above-mentioned mounting of the dividing or separating elements of the mounting plate is no longer suitable, particularly taking into account that the dividing or separating elements are usually arranged horizontally in the filtering water separator. The weight of the elements leads to undesirable bending in the region of their mounting on the mounting plate. When such filtering water separators are built, for example, in wing tank cars, vertical accelerations which take place during the operation lead to an additional bending load in the region of mounting. For this reason the respective international uniform regulations for such filtering water separators make the requirements that when the dividing or separating elements exceed a certain length, they must also be supported at the end which is opposite to the end mounted in the mounting plate, and particularly supported at the above-mentioned opposite end by a lattice-like or spider-like grid-shaped structure inside the housing of the separator. When the dividing or separating elements are provided with the central spindle, the central spindle at its end opposite to the receiving flange member is received in an opening of the spider structure. This construction has the advantage in the fact that all dividing or separating elements to be mounted on the mounting plate can be jointly inserted into the housing at its one side, and the ends of the central spindles can be inserted into the respective openings of the spiders. These openings can conically increase for the purpose of insertion.
In the above-described known arrangement there is, however, the difficulty in that the orientation of each individual dividing or separating element relative to the mounting plate is determined by the fact that the receiving flange member with its sealing face is uniformly sealingly pressed against the mounting plate. Thereby adjusted position of the longitudinal axes of the dividing or separating elements extends (taking into account the unavoidable manufacturing tolerances and also unavoidable bending of the mounting plate because of a pressure differential) not always exactly normal to the plane of the mounting plate. Thereby the free end of the central spindle not always coincides with the respective opening in the spider-like member. When this free end of the central spindle is now forced in the respective opening of the spider-like member, this will lead in many cases to a further bending load in the region of mounting to the mounting plate and an insufficient abutment of the receiving flange member against the mounting plate, which undesirably affects the sealing in this region.